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God Bless AmericaAmerica: My Country Tis of Thee
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Check
out this powerful Southern Cross song! 
Music to touch your
spirit. . .
"I might
not be a religious man myself but I know good music when I hear it, and this is very
good! . . . I don’t think that I have ever given such high
ratings to so many songs before. But
the fact is that they are well deserved because the
music is amazing. Simply wonderful religious ballads and they
really get to your heart. . .everytime."
Fredrik Cole: Trax In Space
God Bless America
God Bless America.
Land that I love
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies ,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home.
God Bless America,
Land that I love
Stand beside her,
And guide her,
Through the night
With the light from above,
From the mountains,
To the prairies,
To the ocean,
White with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
Song Story
God bless America, one of America's unofficial national
anthems, was composed by an immigrant who left his home in Siberia for America when he was
only five years old. The original version of "God Bless America" was written by
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank,
Long Island. He indeded to use it in his
Ziegfeld-style revue, Yip, Yip, Yaphank. The
original lyric declared: "Make her victorious on land and foam, God Bless
America..."
However, Berlin eventually decided that the solemn tone
of "God Bless America" was somewhat out of keeping with the more comedic
elements of the show and the song was laid aside.
It was in the fall of 1938, as war was again threatening Europe,
that Berlin decided to write a "peace" song.
Then he recalled his "God Bless America" from twenty years earlier. He made some alterations to reflect the different
state of the world and “God Bless America” was born. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised "God
Bless America" during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938. The song was an immediate sensation and its sheet
music was in great demand. As a result Berlin
soon established the God Bless America Fund, dedicating the royalties to the Boy and Girl
Scouts of America.
America: My Country Tis of Thee
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain-side
Let Freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers' God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.
Arrangement Copyright © 2000 Don Wigton
A lonely flute is slowly joined by an acoustic guitar, exalting
the Author of America’s freedom. . .a resonate cello accompanies the sound of a piano
proclaiming God as our protector.
Song Story
This favorite American patriotic hymn was written by the
Reverend Samuel Francis Smith, and sung publicly for the first time in Boston in 1832. Samuel was an American minister and writer. According to Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology,
he was one of the main editors of The Psalmist--"the most creditable and
influential of the American Baptist collections.”
Smith attended Harvard University and
Andover Theological Seminary. He entered the
Baptist ministry in 1832, and the same year became editor of Baptist Missionary
Magazine. He also contributed to the Encyclopedia
Americana. From 1834 to 1842, he
pastored at Waterville, Maine, and was Professor of Modern Languages at Waterville
College. In 1842, he moved to Newton,
Massachusetts, where he stayed until 1854, when he became editor of the publications of
the Baptist Missionary Union.
The secular world best remembers Smith as
the lyricist for “My Country ’Tis of Thee,”
though her wrote several other hymns. He
and Oliver Wendell Holmes were classmates at Harvard, and at a reunion for the class of
1829, Holmes wrote:
There’s
a nice youngster of excellent pith,
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal, “My country,” “of thee.”
The tune to this praise hymn was first popular in England as
"God Save the King (Queen)" and is now the English national anthem.
An interesting circumstance lead to the inclusion of “My Country Tis of Thee” on the Wigtune
patriotic CD. With all my might I was trying
to think of Christian patriotic hymns to add to the project. But, for some reason, my mind just went blank! One night in the middle of the night, as I was
dreaming, this song came to mind. But, when I
woke up, I completely forgot what the song was. It
was the next day, while I was looking on the Internet for information on “God Bless
America” that I stumbled across it on a WEB page.
That night, exited about the revelation, I went home and composed the piece.
A lonely flute fills the air with its precious melody as a
gentle acoustic guitar subtly filters in. During
the next verse a resonate cello adds a melodic counter melody to the flute solo as a light
piano adds depth with its delightful timbre. During
the last verse the cello and flute exchange roles as the piece rolls to a passionate end. We pray that you will consider the words to this
significant offering from American history to realize what a great part God has played in
the development of the great democratic experiment.
is a subsidiary of Wigtune Company, formed as a
service to the body of Christ. Our vision is to encourage scriptural worship in the
Church by offering free praise music and hymns performed in a contemporary manner along
with a free on-line worship study book for personal devotions, Bible study groups, Sunday
schools, pastors, music ministers and ministry training. The worship study
book lends theological and historical support to the use of traditional Christian
hymn-singing in conjunction with praise chorus singing. Click on one of the links below to
enter into the Wigtune resource that interests you !
Vision Statement
Wigtune Story
Free On-Line Worship Studybook
Radio: Listen to Wigtune music on live Internet
radio
Testimonials: What they are saying
about Wigtune Music
Bible Study
Helps, a Multitude of Christian Links and Other Goodies
Where's
Wiggy? - List and Links to Christian Organizations
Copyright © 1999 Don Wigton. All rights reserved.
Patriotic Hymns 1
| Patriotic Hymns 2
Christmas Hymns
1 | Christmas Hymns 2 | Christmas
Hymns 3 | Christmas Hymns 4
Hymns 1 | Hymns 2 | Hymns 3 | Hymns
4 | Hymns 5 | Hymns 6 | Hymns 7 | Hymns 8 | Hymns
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